Would you like to see mixed mma?
No, I’m not confused. I’m talking about mixing the men’s and women’s divisions.
I realize it sounds crazy, but hear me out. (Or read me out, if you’re of the literal persuasion.)
What if...? Cyborg vs Aldo
The reason for weight classes is so you never have to watch a guy the size of Brock Lesnar fighting a guy the size of Jens Pulver. Nobody wants to see that. (Actually, I lie. That would be hilarious!)
The reason you don’t see women and men play on the same hockey team or in the same league is that, generally speaking, women are smaller than men. But when you have weight classes with men and women coming in at the same weight, there is virtually nothing different! So why not?
Two reasons why not:
- Nobody is ready to see a man beat up a woman.
- No guy wants to get beat up by a girl!
Aside from those admittedly huge reasons, there really is no reason to not mix mma into one unisex sport.
What do you think?
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It looks like, at least in a related sport, there already has been a fight between a man and a woman. Somchai Jaidee (5’6″, 130lbs) defeated Lucia Rijker (5’6″, 128lbs) by KO in the second round of a Muay Thai match way back in 1994!
There have also been many other mixed gender fights won by the woman. (Far more than won by men.) Also, girls have been having success in high school wrestling competing against boys. A couple of years ago in Alaska, a girl won the state championship in her weight division.
Don’t you think the mixed mma fights would have to be handicapped in favor of the female fighters? (Lucia Rijker is probably the best female fighter in the world. I don’t know much about Somchai Jaidee, but I don’t think he is among the top of male fighters.) How could that be done? Also, I wonder if a lot of male fighters would be afraid to fight top notch female fighters. A lot of male fighters would get their egos crushed if they lost to a woman. Do you think we could get past that in time?
Maybe that proves my point a bit. The fact that a female can win against male opponents in the same weight class only makes this inevitable in the future. I don’t think we’ll ever see a male-female title fight, but someone is going to stage a cross-gender match at some point. I don’t think handicapping is necessary. Nobody handicapped Royce Gracie in UFC 1 and he seemed to do okay.
As for male egos – maybe some of them need to be crushed!
One last response. Check out this:
http://www.ilovebonnie.net/2008/01/02/top-5-men-vs-women-fighting-videos-online/
First fight looks very legitimate.
2nd – Lucia vs Somchai
3rd – farce. Highly skilled woman vs untrained man
4th – same as 3rd
5th – very convincing victory of woman over a man. Brutal also. One tough woman and one male with crushed ego.
I never liked to see men fighting. I mean, two guys almost naked, hugging each other and rolling around the floor? C’mon ! Booooring. Maybe this is what I don’t like jj/bjj or judo. But women vs males… I don’t know. Maybe could be more interesting
This will shock some of you, but women actually have a genetic advantage when grappling with men. Women have excessively strong inner thigh muscles compared to men. Many women can scissor like hell with their legs, but men typically cannot. If you don’t believe me, have your wife or girlfriend scissor you. Then, scissor her. You’ll be shocked to find out that she has a stronger scissor than you do.